Anil Jaggia - IC 814 Hijacked. The Inside Story

IC814
HIJACKED!

Anil K. Jaggia, 58, operated hijacked flight IC 814 as its Flight Engineer. He is Chief of Flight Engineering with Indian Airlines, and has 20,000 flight hours experience as Flight Engineer. An Instructor and Examiner Flight Engineer on the Airbus A300 aircraft, he received his technical education at ATTI (Air Technical Training Institute), Calcutta, and is also a graduate of the 35th Air Transport Course at Oxford, UK.

Saurabh Shukla, 27, IS an investigative journalist with The Indian Express. A Masters in International Studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, he was a British Chevening Scholar at the Centre for Security Studies, University of Hull, UK. He completed his second Masters in Security Studies in 1999. While in UK he did a course on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare. He has been nominated as a fellow by 21st Century Trust, London.

IC814 HIJACKED! The Inside Story

Lotus. Collection

Anil K. ]aggia 2000
Saurabh Shukla 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher.

This edition first published 2000
The Lotus Collection
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ISBN: 81-7436-109-X

Text Editor: Kishore Singh
Cover Design: Inkspot
Back Cover: Courtesy AFP (Agency France Press)

Dedication

On December 24, 1999, the passengersand crew of Indian Airlines Flightle 814 were taken hostage by a groupofjive hijackers.As the nation watchedthe horror unfold, three passengers werestabbed. Two of them survived theirinjuries, but Rupin Katyal succumbed tothis brutal act of terrorism.

This book is dedicated to the memory ofhis tragic death that robbed a father ofan only son, and a bride of her twenty-day-old husband.

Acknowledgements

I would like to sincerely acknowledge theconstant help and encouragement extended by my wife,Kusum and daughters Anupama and Aparna; mymother Shanti Jaggia for her blessings,and my nephewManoj for his help. Special thanks are due to MadhuDayal, S.S. Panesar, Y.K. Singh, O.P. Mahendroo,S.N Nigam, D. Sharan,R.N Tandon, RajinderKumar, Anil Sharma, M.P. Aggarwal and my dearfriends and colleagues at Indian Airlines. My gratitudeto Kishore Singh for his expert editing and myappreciation to Mr Pramod Kapoor and his entireteam at Roli Books.

I would like to thank Ma and Papa for showing methe way, Chhaya and Devendra Narain for theirconstant encouragement, Prriti for bringing out the bestin me, and Shweta and Anup for their support.

Thanks are also due to all those senior colleagues at The Indian Express and friends who gave theirvaluable insights, to Dr Amitabh Mattoo for his useiu!comments on the draft, to the entire team at RoliBooks that burned the midnight oil with us) andespecially to Pramod Kapoorfor ensuring that the bookcame out in record time. A special thanks to KishoreSingh for giving the book itsfinal shape.

Contents

HONEYMOON GONE SOUR

BLOOD IN THE AISLES

CHRISTMAS IN KANDAHAR

OPENING A CHANNEL TO THE TALIBAN

WAITING FOR RELIEF

MAKING LOVE TO THE ROGUES

BLIND DATE

WAR OF NERVES

THE FINAL DEAL

POSTSCRIPT

BLUNDERS GALORE

IC814: The Inside View

Red Cap and Burger were allocated executive class seats 2B and 3A.
Doctor, Bhola and Shankar were booked on seats BC, 19G and 23G. In the map,these are identified as spots A, B, C, D and E.

The original seating for Rupin and Rachna Katyal (F and G), and David Johnson (H)was soon changed. The stabbings occurred in the executive class cabin. Later, theexecutive class cabin was used to contain the passengers' hand baggage and as adispensary.

In Kandahar, the flight crew was usually made to sit in rows 9 and 10 in the frontof the economy cabin, identified as J and K.